Right. Only questions/comments addressing the FAQ itself should be posted here. I don't mind answering general amp questions here, but it's probably more effective to create a new thread for questions.

Hi All,
I'm quite confused about what to do.I have a Yamaha rxv-1900,while it is fantastic for movies,for 2 channel music,it is very ordinary.So i am going to add an amplifier to it,either a 2 channel power amp or an integrated amp.I don't know which is the better way to go,a power amp i think make more sense,but i'm thinking i could still end up hearing the Yamaha through it,where-as if i get an integrated,i know i will totally eliminate the Yamaha sound,which is what i'm wanting to do.Any suggestions? And any recommendations on what brand around the $1,500 range.

I think Penn covered damping factor above There's at least three articles explain how damping factor is overhyped online. In both amp design books I own, both authors downplay for all the reasons you can read online.

It always seems that when people compare amplifier sound quality they refer back to these blind A/B tests. Some of these reports “want” to show that there is little difference between amplifiers so in these tests, they usually limit the output to below clipping of the weakest amp then balance the output of the amps. To me, this is not comparing apples to apples. I agree that it shows the amps are similar at that give test criteria but that has little to do in the real world. I think how these should be tested is at different SLP levels with no limits. This is where you will see the more powerful amps pull away from the weaker ones. I found this out when I bought my first Pioneer Elite receiver. I thought I could pull my Carver amps out of my system but after A/B testing them at different SPL levels, I opted to keep the amps and run the Pioneer as a Pre/Pro. The Pioneer played as loud but not as good as the Carvers.
The second thing that should be mentioned is the power supply of amps. When an amps 4 ohm rating is less than double that of it’s 8 ohm rating, it’s an indication of a smaller than ideal power supply for the amps rated output. As an example amp A is rated at 200w@8 ohms/300w@4 ohms while amp B is rated at 300w@8 ohms/600w@4 ohms. This indicates that amp B has a better sized power supply to it’s rated output. I haven’t seen any reports on this but I would tend to believe this lack of power would increase the clipping when the amp is under heavy load. Maybe someone with more knowledge on this subject could add more to this power supply discussion.

I agree with some of what you said, but you may be a bit off base on the doubling down aspect. A number of engineers have stated that few amps will truly double power when the impedance is halved.

Some have even claimed that some manufacturers will de-rate their 8 ohm output just so it looks like the power doubles. In other words, even if the manufacture specs should power doubling into 4 ohms, that's because the 8 ohm power rating was doctored (while I can't prove this, I have seen it mentioned a few times, and I would not put it past manufacturers.)

I don't fully understand the technical reasons, but I would guess there are losses which make doubling power into half the load a difficult problem.

Seems to me that if the amp comes pretty close to doubling power into 4 ohms, it's a good amp. I don't think it has to do it exactly for it to be considered a good amp.

I think Penn covered damping factor above There's at least three articles explain how damping factor is overhyped online. In both amp design books I own, both authors downplay for all the reasons you can read online.

Thanks much for taking the time to put this together! I am looking for an amp but not sure where to start - this is really helpful for a noob like me.

I have had Yamaha RX-V663 and HK 3600 receivers for living room/entertainment center. I need something to drive some Ascend Sierras for music in a bedroom setup. I don't need AVR capabilities nor lots of add ons. Just looking for clean power to play music at normal, not-loud volume, that is unobtrusive (smaller than a receiver). I use itunes to the airport express with lossless files. Looking in the sub $500.00 range. I love the HK sound so something similar to that would be awesome. Anyone have any suggestions for amps to take a look at for purchase? Also, any other threads I might check out which will help me find what I am looking for?

Not sure if I should have made a new thread.. but what are people opinions on bi-amping without a seperate amp?

Heres Onkyos take on it(RC260 manual)

Quote:

Bi-amping the Front Speakers

The FRONT L/R and SURR BACK OR FRONT HIGH OR FRONT WIDE L/R terminal posts can be used with front speakers and surround back speakers respectively, or bi-amped to provide separate tweeter and woofer feeds for a pair of front speakers that sup- port bi-amping, providing improved bass and treble per- formance.

Once you’ve completed the bi-amping connections shown below and turned on the AV receiver, you must set the “Speakers Type” setting to “Bi-Amp” to enable bi-amping (➔ 35).

In general do all modern 7.1 receivers use this feature the same way as onkyo?

Your question has been discussed many times. Try a search, and if that does not help, post a new thread.

Short answer - biamping from a receiver does not see likely to give an improvement gain as the amps all share from the same power supply. But there's no harm in trying it out, just the price of wire (which is cheap.)

Posts to this thread should be directly related to this FAQ (Maybe I need a section on bi-amping.)